Disclaimer: I don't own Battlestar Galactica, or any of the characters or anything else contained therein. In short, if you're a creator or somebody involved with the show, don't sue me for this.

Prologue:

(The escape and the headlong run from what had been the colony of New Caprica had been costly to say the least. The refugee fleet was now down to less than 42,000 in total number. Over 7,000 lives lost on New Caprica, that was how newly re-instated President Laura Roslin saw it. Over 7,000 lives lost because of a desire borne of the human need to have solid ground under their feet and a possible safe haven from the Cylons.)

(They weren't entirely mistaken in their desire to have those things, but in the end, the cost was still too high for her liking.)

(Another person for whom the cost was too high was Colonel Saul Tigh. As the leader of the human resistance on New Caprica, Saul had sent countless people, people he cared about, people he trusted, to their deaths for the simple sake of ensuring that there would some day be a way off that rock. Saul's wife, Ellen, had been a collaborator, and she had paid the ultimate price for it. Some had said that the one single event of Tigh having to end his own wife's life was the thing responsible for killing his soul.)

(The body still remained, still had life, but the soul, the man, Saul Tigh, was gone forever.)

(For Kara Thrace, the cost had been high as well. Her husband, Samuel Anders had died in her arms as they lifted off from New Caprica. A bullet from a Cylon Centurion's gun had swept Samuel from her. And as he lay dying, coughing up blood in her arms, she cursed the existence of those who had created the Cylons in the first place. Kara couldn't believe it at first, the hatred in her heart for her fellow man. But then she refocused it, it wasn't the creators that were wrong, it was their creations. Sure things hadn't always been sunshine and roses between her and Sam, but his death hit her heart like a hammer hitting glass.)

(Kara Thrace was no longer a woman, she was a weapon again, as she had been before going down to the planet. And now she'd never stop until either every Cylon was destroyed completely, or she was dead.)

(Lee Adama had a cost to pay as well, his command. His ship, the Pegasus, was destroyed in the battle over New Caprica, an acceptable casualty in his mind, as "The Beast" had taken several basestars with it in the process of its death. Lee had enjoyed command, a little too much, allowing himself to go soft in the year that had passed while the majority of the fleet, and even his pilots, settled on the planet. Lee's cost of his friendship with Kara Thrace had been a particular hurt in his heart, because try as she might, Dualla was no Kara Thrace. Something about Kara completed Lee,)

(However, Starbuck and Apollo were no more, not a team, not a pair, not even friends.)

(Watching this from afar was William Adama, the man who had seen both great triumph and tragedy at the same time, many times over. He had sent countless pilots into battle, only to watch and hear them die. The rescue mission was no different. The plan, though executed perfectly, had cost them. And though Bill Adama had his family, his crew, and his fleet back together, he still felt the sadness that enveloped him every time another one of his pilots didn't come home.)

(The world as Bill Adama knew it was about to change…and it was about to shine with a new ray of hope.)